First, a couple blog notes. I haven't been posting as much because my free time has been filled with writing my new book. More info and the cover are in the forums. Also, lots of people have been linking to me recently. I really appreciate it!

Ahem... waterboarding.

For those who don't know, waterboarding is a controversial subject these days. It's an torture method which is used to interrogate suspects and designed to simulate drowning. Supposedly it's so bad that the average marine can only handle it for 15 seconds.

So, a couple of my friends, LadyTea and Doug share a goal of losing some weight. Neither is fat, but they each want to slim down a bit before the summer. So, in the interest of motivation, I have promised to post a picture of LadyTea in her bikini and Doug in a speedo on May 1st.

So, prepare yourselves to witness the beauty of two svelte people who are committed to their goals. (By the way... I have two awesome stories coming soon... haven't had the time to type them up yet)

Hey everyone... one of my favorite sites for personal finance is a site called "Get Rich Slowly". I just wrote an article for them, which was published today and also featured on Lifehacker. You can read the article here, and make sure to check out some of his other articles as well... lots of good stuff there.

It's 10 minutes before midnight on the last day of 2006, and I'm sitting in bed writing a post. I guess that shows where my priorities are. Anyway, a year ago I wrote down my goals for 2006, so our first order of business is to review them.

1 - Become Fully Polyphasic.
I guess I did this one, but I'm not polyphasic anymore. I'll count it as a win since I made it and then decided not to be polyphasic.

2 - Gain 15lb. of lean muscle mass
I totally did not do this one at all. In fact, I lost 12 pounds this year because I went vegan.

Let's be honest: My blog is pretty cool. It's not nearly as popular at Boingboing, Tuckermax, or that weird housewife who writes about her kids, but I have a pretty steady readership who all post comments and get something out of the site. Since I started around a year ago, I've averaged 1200 unique readers a day (half of that is thanks to huge spikes from digg and such). My blog hasn't made me rich, but I've probably made a few thousand dollars, which is a nice side effect. More importantly it's made me a much better writer, and has helped me chronicle the past year of my life.

What I'm saying is this : I can't help you build the next Engadget or WWTDD, but I can help you get started to building a moderately popular blog.

First you need decent hosting and Wordpress. Don't mess with blogger - no one reads blogger blogs because they all look the same and don't have cool plugins that you need. I know you can customize it and all, but stop arguing and do it my way.

During my second year at college, I thought that investing was easy. I read about options, paper traded for a few months, and then solicited my friends for investments. Many of them invested in my hedge fund - "The H Fund", which I started with a friend. In total we had $26k, which was quite a lot considering how young we were.

The fund survived for a few months, even being profitable for a short amount of time. In the end, though, we lost all of the money. Luckily I have awesome friends who understood the risk, and no one was mad. Still - I learned my lessons and stayed out of the stock market for years.

For some reason or another I started reading about Warren Buffet. For those that don't know, he is the second richest man in the US, with a worth of over 40 billion. What makes him exceptional is that he is the only person on the top 100 richest people list who made his money through investing.

Like most kids I used to delight in waking up at the crack of dawn to unwrap the mountain of presents under the tree. With shreds of paper covering the living room I'd run upstairs to call my friends and compare our hauls.

One Christmas, maybe when I was in high school or so, my parents asked what I wanted for Christmas. For no good reason, I felt different.

I mentioned the idea a few times in the past, and people seemed to like the idea of having forums here. I do too, so here they are.

The forums should make things a lot more interactive around these parts. You can ask for advice, post your own stories and tips, or just chat with all the other cool BTYB readers. With your help, I'm going to make it into the only forum on the internet dedicated to living an awesome life.

I'll be checking the forum several times a day, and probably posting every day too. Stories that are too short (or that I'm too short on time for) will also go there. So help me get some momentum by registering for an account and posting something interesting!

Right now I'm sitting on my couch enjoying the aroma of onions and garlic cooking in olive oil. On another burner is a giant pot full of vegetables. Next to it is a skillet with roasting eggplants. To the side of the stove is a cutting board with even more chopped vegetables. What's going on?

Preparation.

On Friday I'm heading up to Massachusetts to be with my family for Christmas. I go every six months and see my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends. The one problem is that it's very difficult to eat healthy while traveling, especially during the season of many fine home cooked meals. My family is Italian, and thus most meals are a healthy salad coupled with an unhealthy pasta dish.

I get back to my building and reach into my back pocket. I dig for the fob that opens the front door, but can't find it. Each pocket gets patted in anticipation of the familiar key-jingle noise, but I don't hear it.

I wait for someone else to come into the building and I take the elevator up. There are two sliding glass doors that lead from the living room to the patio, and I sometimes leave one unlocked by accident. Hopeful, I shuffle to the first door and try it. Locked. I look inside and see the glow of my bedroom lights.

It's November, which wouldn't mean much in Austin if it weren't for the cold front we're dealing with. I move on to the next door, and it's also locked.